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Key points
- The COVID Year One birthrate declined by 8 percent.
- A recent Pew Research study found 60 percent of adults under 40 don't want kids. Ever.
Early on in the pandemic, there was lots of chatter about an expected baby boom among folks holed up together with time on their hands. The opposite is what really occurred. In December 2020, when the first COVID-conceived kids would have been born, the birthrate declined 8 percent from the prior year.
A couple weeks ago, Pew Research Center released a report titled, “Growing Share of Childless Adults in the US Don’t Expect to Ever Have Children.” They found not only were people not having kids, but the historic downward trend in the birthrate tanked.
Coming on the heels of the Great Recession, COVID got people thinking about foregoing parenthood. 44 percent of those under age 50 said it’s unlikely they’ll have kids. Ever. 60 percent of respondents under age 40 said they just don’t want them. Reasons include financial concerns, medical circumstances, lack of a partner, and environmental changes.
2021 has been a year of explosive worldwide progress to normalize not having kids. As recently as two years ago it was a challenge to find informative and constructive material on the subject. Google “childfree” or “childless” today, and you’ll be busy for days.
One such newcomer is Tutum Journal, a magazine for and about childless women, launched in 2021. The brainchild of publisher and editor Jobi Tyson, tutum, the Latin word for “safe,” might seem a curious name for a magazine about not having kids. It’s not.
Regardless of whether by choice or through circumstances, when you don’t have kids during the so-called “fertile” years, the expectation is still that you’ll have them someday. "Better get going" say bubbly parents, grandparent wannabes, even strangers, often accompanied by a knowing wink.
Later in life the admonishment shifts to "Who’s going to care for you when you’re old?" The onslaught of pronatalism never ceases. As we prepare for a future with fewer families with children, now is the perfect time for the voices of the childless, ambivalent, and childfree to be heard.
Younger people benefit from learning how they might navigate their futures if they don’t end up with kids. Elders benefit from sharing discoveries about life with those who will travel routes similar to those they trod. Parents gain access to information about their children’s potential futures and how they might consider their own elder years without having grandkids. And our loved ones get to know us as we really are. No apologies, no stigmas, no stereotypes.
